Compost Moves Up in NYC

Samuel Fok, Daniela Escobar and Samantha Hoffman from the High School for Environmental Studies at a Durst Organization roof garden.
Mark Abramson for The Wall Street Journal

By

Carmel Melouney

Jan. 21, 2013 9:43 p.m. ET

Half-eaten salads tossed out by Midtown office workers these days can end up being carted to an upstate compost farm and then returned to Midtown buildings for use as fertilizer on green rooftops.

With more green roofs sprouting up across New York's skyline, the Durst Organization says it will spend between $750,000 and $1 million to install more than an acre of green space atop its Midtown Manhattan buildings.

The real-estate company, whose commercial portfolio includes One Bryant Park, One World Trade Center and Four Times Square, among others, launched its composting program at the beginning of 2012.

Food waste from the pantries and kitchens from the Durst buildings in the city—11 buildings totaling 13 million square feet—is now hauled up to Dutchess County to be turned into compost at the McEnroe Organic Farm in the Harlem Valley.

The compost and soil is then brought back to the city to be used on the company's green roofs in Manhattan.

"I haven't heard of any other real-estate property company recycling their food into compost for a green roof," said Amy Norquist, president and chief executive of Greensulate, a Manhattan-based company that designs, builds and maintains green roofs. "It's forward thinking."

Ms. Norquist, whose company helped the Fashion Institute of Technology install nearly 20,000 square feet of green roof two years ago, said the benefits of such projects include improved air quality, energy efficiency, decreased temperatures, storm-water management, mitigation of climate change and improved productivity.

"For companies, adding green space is a huge thing that provides an…increase in employee productivity," she said. "People like looking out on a green space; it literally makes them happier."

The Durst Organization's green-roof system is able to retain about 55,000 gallons of water that would otherwise wind up in the sewer system. The company's first green roofs, which are covered in a mixture of hardy, low-lying plants that don't require deep soil, were installed last March above the Durst offices at One Bryant Park and at 675 Third Ave.

By spring, the company will have installed green roofs on eight of its buildings, including 205 E. 42nd St., 655 and 733 Third Ave., 1133 and 1155 Sixth Ave. and 114 W. 47th St.

"Green roofs are an increasingly important part of our urban ecosystem," said Helena Durst, the organization's vice president who initiated the program. "Beyond diverting storm water runoff, they provide cooling by absorbing sunlight that would otherwise be converted to heat energy, and they can capture pollutants and filter noxious gases."

The company has enlisted three students from the High School for Environmental Studies in Hell's Kitchen to study the high-rise foliage and determine the benefits of green roofs in settings like Manhattan. Seniors Samuel Fok, 18 years old, Daniela Escobar, 17, and Samantha Hoffman, 17, have spent several hours every two weeks testing samples from the green rooftops.

"We're just trying to identify the plants that we find that are on the roof, and we're trying to see what weeds come up and whether they're invasive or noninvasive species," Ms. Hoffman, who intends to study geology after graduation, said of the project.

Matthew Washington, manager of special projects at Durst Organization, has been working with the students from his alma mater. "The intention is to create a long-term fellowship program with the school so that a new group of students each year can work on the green roofs," said Mr. Washington.

Other property companies are also getting into the green roof trend, encouraged by government incentives.

In recent years, the New York state Assembly introduced a tax abatement of $4.50 a square foot for the installation of green roofs in New York City, and the Department of Environmental Protection introduced funding for green roofs with a focus being storm-water management.

In 2007, Tishman Speyer installed an 18,000-square-foot green roof atop Radio City Music Hall, saving approximately 566,000 gallons of water from the city's storm-water system annually. The Albanese Organization also plans to install a 6,050-square-foot green roof on a commercial building the company will construct at 510 W. 22nd St.

Russell Albanese, the company's chairman, said the current five-story building, which is adjacent to the High Line, will be redeveloped into a 10-story commercial building for restaurant, gallery and office tenants.

"A green roof on a building provides space for people to gather on the roof and be outdoors," said Mr. Albanese. "Tenants want to get away from being locked in a glass tower."

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.